RMweb Gold Phil Bullock Posted March 7, 2014 RMweb Gold Share Posted March 7, 2014 (edited) The spring is sprung in Cheltenham First butterflies of the year in Sandford Park - Tortoiseshell and male Brimstone - in Sandford Park today Locally there is a recognition that you cant say winter is passed until Race Week is over - and that's next week - but the weather pattern does look established for a while. Might even get some decent trout fishing this year if we have a decent spring.... Phil Edited February 13, 2015 by Phil Bullock 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
stewartingram Posted March 7, 2014 Share Posted March 7, 2014 Frogs out in my garden. Birds are nesting high, sign of a good summer. Stewart Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Premium Clive Mortimore Posted March 7, 2014 RMweb Premium Share Posted March 7, 2014 Oil seed rape is in flower around here, over a month early. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Gold Tony_S Posted March 7, 2014 RMweb Gold Share Posted March 7, 2014 The biting varieties of insect have been active this week! 15C sunny and damp really encourages them! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Gold The Stationmaster Posted March 8, 2014 RMweb Gold Share Posted March 8, 2014 Frogs out in my garden. Birds are nesting high, sign of a good summer. Stewart The crows which nest alongside Tilehurst station are also nesting high - just like they did last year, hmm ... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Coombe Barton Posted March 8, 2014 Share Posted March 8, 2014 Birds are nesting high, sign of a good summer. Nah. Just want to be above the floods. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
chaz Posted March 8, 2014 Share Posted March 8, 2014 A pair of long tail tits are nesting somewhere in our garden and keep attacking their "rivals" in our windows. I'm hoping this year is as good as last for butterflies. Taken on Old Winchester Hill, Hampshire last September. Great place for flutterbys. Chaz 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
34theletterbetweenB&D Posted March 8, 2014 Share Posted March 8, 2014 ...Birds are nesting high, sign of a good summer. Someone should only give our local ditzy Mrs Blackbird the hint. She has definitely already attempted nest building in two unsuitable locations, both less than two feet above the ground. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Premium Welchester Posted March 8, 2014 RMweb Premium Share Posted March 8, 2014 The spring is sprung in Cheltenham Is the Lido open? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Gold Phil Bullock Posted March 8, 2014 Author RMweb Gold Share Posted March 8, 2014 Is the Lido open? Hmm - think I'll leave it to you to determine the appropriateness of the current temperature for immersion!!!!! Hee hee http://www.sandfordparkslido.org.uk/emailgroup.html Phil Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Baby Deltic Posted March 9, 2014 Share Posted March 9, 2014 My pond had about a dozen frogs and toads in it yesterday. There are still quite a few today, plus a fair bit of spawn. Its good fun playing with the inspection camera and looking at the fish and amphibians face to face. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Gold Downendian Posted March 9, 2014 RMweb Gold Share Posted March 9, 2014 Just got in from a 5 mile walk in the deepest South Hams. Loads of butterflies, many peacocks, small tortoiseshells and a lone red admiral. Unusual for this time of year. On the bird front the yellowhammers have arrived (saw at least three pairs) and many skylarks were up. Lambs also in the field behind the cottage. Thank goodness spring is at last here. Neil 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Belgian Posted March 9, 2014 Share Posted March 9, 2014 Sping spung here ages ago - the daffs have been around for at least a month. The Southern got its adverts wrong - they should have said 'I'm taking an early holiday 'cos I know Sping comes soonest in the South!' (or is it Spring?). JE Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jonny777 Posted March 9, 2014 Share Posted March 9, 2014 Just got in from a 5 mile walk in the deepest South Hams. Loads of butterflies, many peacocks, small tortoiseshells and a lone red admiral. Unusual for this time of year. On the bird front the yellowhammers have arrived (saw at least three pairs) and many skylarks were up. Lambs also in the field behind the cottage. Thank goodness spring is at last here. Neil The lone Red Admiral is very interesting because it bears out the idea that they are able to survive a mild UK winter in hibernation. I doubt it would have migrated that distance by early March. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
alfsboy Posted March 9, 2014 Share Posted March 9, 2014 We saw a Tortoiseshell and lots of Brimstones well over a week ago in Norfolk.Its all happening folks . Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Gold Downendian Posted March 9, 2014 RMweb Gold Share Posted March 9, 2014 some photos from this mornings amble in the South Hams Primroses are out everywhere in the hedgerows We saw at least four different peacocks, plus tortoiseshells and a single red admiral The heather and other plants are crawling with bumble bees and honey bees from the local hives. Taken in the back garden 20 minutes ago The twin oaks, about 200 yards away from our cottage, a good marker of the seasons- buds showing Neil 6 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted March 9, 2014 Share Posted March 9, 2014 (edited) Same here in Denmark, a country not exactly noted for warm weather. After the fifth mildest winter since records began in 1874, I'm sitting here under blazing sunshine with the heating off and the outside temperature well into the mid-teens. When you consider that last winter, we were still getting quite heavy snow into April, this is quite something. The wife has just returned from the colony garden (Danish tradition - think allotment but on a grander scale and for leisure only, with a small wooden house thrown in) and tells me things are budding like crazy. Looks like some of my modelling time will be "reassigned" over the next few months. Edit to add: No butterflies yet but this garden is festooned with bushes intended to attract them. First sign, I'll post some pics of them and the garden. Edited March 9, 2014 by Guest Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
34theletterbetweenB&D Posted March 9, 2014 Share Posted March 9, 2014 Having not long come indooors from enjoying lunch in garden,and dozing in sunshine, it is noticeable that site traffic is down. Large majority properly enjoying it methinks. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
darren01 Posted March 10, 2014 Share Posted March 10, 2014 (edited) Hi Well l working in the garden over the weekend I saw a red admiral ,never seen on this early. Edited March 11, 2014 by darren01 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Gold Phil Bullock Posted March 10, 2014 Author RMweb Gold Share Posted March 10, 2014 Fantastic sightings folks - it all gladdens the heart On the red admiral front I did see one on the wing on a ridiculously warm January day in Gloucester a few years ago Phil Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
The Lurker Posted March 10, 2014 Share Posted March 10, 2014 Yes, a peacock, several tortoiseshells and ladybirds all spotted in the garden this weekend, the ornamental cherry is in blossom, the magpies are getting very territorial and the parakeets are going crazy Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
chaz Posted March 11, 2014 Share Posted March 11, 2014 I was down in the New Forest this morning. A couple of pairs of curlew were prospecting for nest sites, song thrush, chaffinches and great tits were singing/calling and a great spotted woody was drumming. Stonechats are back on the heath. So they all think it's spring. Best sighting of the morning was a hawfinch in the tree tops. No snaps - my Nikon is still at the menders - GRRR. Chaz Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Gold DaveF Posted March 11, 2014 RMweb Gold Share Posted March 11, 2014 Two peacock butterflies in the garden, frogspawn in the pond, sparrows prospecting nest sites, but still a number of snow buntings down at the harbour yesterday. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
chaz Posted March 16, 2014 Share Posted March 16, 2014 Pennington Marshes (nr Lymington Hampshire) yesterday. A couple of red admirals flitting about. However not a single spring migrant bird - was hoping for a wheatear or two, especially as it was quite warm but no-show. However star of our trip was a long-billed dowitcher, which I was told has been in and around Fishtail Lagoon for quite a while. Chaz Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Gold Phil Bullock Posted March 29, 2014 Author RMweb Gold Share Posted March 29, 2014 Surveying the garden from within the house this morning saw some flutterby activity Judging by the territorial perching behaviour suspected a comma And so it proved He decided the one collapsed daffodil was the ideal perch! Welsh leanings perhaps? Phil 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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